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Summary: The Dallas County Disaster

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On December 26, 2015, residents of North Texas experienced a terror foreign to the area’s usual weather patterns.

“The only things left were the door and front porch,” says Caylee Stokes, SFA freshman, about the remains of a neighbor’s home, “Everything else was gone.”

Just a day after Christmas, a series of tornadoes struck suburban areas of Dallas County with maximum wind speeds of 200 mph, leaving the area in shambles.

Over 25% of SFA’s student body calls Dallas County and the surrounding area home.
This disaster was a shocking end to many of our fellow Lumberjacks’ holiday season.

“It doesn’t hit you until you are standing there looking at the damage,” says Stokes.

Two suburbs, Garland and Rowlett, located just 20 miles outside of Dallas, …show more content…
As a result of the catastrophe, 11 people in North Texas were reported dead and dozens injured. Gov. Greg Abbott declared Dallas County a disaster area at 7 p.m. that night, along with Collin, Ellis and Rockwall counties.

Though many people are now without homes, the communities of Dallas County have displayed their character by uniting in this hardship.

“I took a bunch of sweaters and jackets to the helping hands facility,” says Wall, who returned from a trip to find her hometown in ruins. “The volunteers in the area were amazing and are still out there to this day helping people clean up.”

Hundreds of others also did not hesitate to extend a helping hand to their neighbors.

Stokes, an animal lover, responded to the chaos by volunteering to help four-legged tornado victims. Rowlett Animal Clinic opened its doors to provide food and a place to stay for lost pets until they could be reunited with their owners.

“They took in 40 animals in one day,” says Stokes, who interacted with a golden retriever found three days after the storm under a pile of

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